Permaculture: Improving the land
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Our goal is to not only utilize but improve all of the land we care for and we do that through permaculture and regenerative farming methods. We use our land for growing medicinal plants and herbs, vegetables and various fruits. The manure from our goats, poultry and rabbits are used in the creation of hugelkultur mounds around our property.  We utilize manure for our many projects - it is key to what we do here. When we moved to Vermont in the winter of 2010, our backyard consisted of massive amounts of buckthorns and honeysuckle, in the middle of a planted lawn. We spent a great deal of time removing honeysuckle, and then started our first hugelkultur beds - grown right on top of lawn. No digging at all.  It was that easy.
The before and after photos of our North Gardens (Zone 2)
Our front side yard went from useless lawn to a black raspberry orchard, complete with numerous herbs, fruit bushes and trees, and perennials.  All grown from a base of animal manured hay and shavings from our farm animals, dead leaves and wood, and rich compost! See photos below.
Before - lots of lawn to mow!
After: black raspberries, oregano, perennials, and more!
We propagated over 60 black raspberry plants last summer - such a simple process and basically free!
Elderberries, currents and walking onions
Approximately 200ft long/8-12ft wide hugelkultur bed with various herbs, perennials, honey berries, currents, gooseberries, grapes, hops, walking onions, cranberries, elderberries, black raspberries, strawberries, thyme and other ground covers with overstory trees of english walnut, apple, pears, basswood, linden berry, elm and others. 
Cranberries living happily among medicinal herbs under an english walnut tree.​
We planted oregano between all black raspberry plants to attract pollinators! We will also have lots of oregano to dry and jar for winter soups and recipes!
And a new greenhouse this past fall!
The before and after photos of our Main House Gardens, Terrace Gardens & He Shed Garden. (Zones 1 & 2, backyard)
Our backyard before growing food. It was just lawn, sloping hills where all the water drained to the lower section of the yard and stayed marshy, and covered in honeysuckle (some had already been removed in these photos below). Left side, original backyard, right side are the regenerative current House/Terrace Gardens.
Original backyard (left side photos)
House Gardens. These are two Zone 1 gardens that are closest to our house that we use most often. One is fenced in an area of about 40'x30', and the other is comprised of six long beds outside the main house garden area. In these areas, we grow various herbs such as rosemary, thyme, different basil varieties, dill, chamomile, oregano and stinging nettle, but also blackberries, raspberries, honey berries, cherry plums, apples, shipova pears, goumi berries, gooseberries, peppermint, spearmint, anise hyssop, beans, peas, tomatoes, onions, carrots, melons, sunflowers and much more!
Our Chicken Coop turned HE Shed ​- Growing massive amounts of fruit at the base of our man cave, also known as our Buck Shed! Also Zone 1, growing peaches, concord grapes, currents, elderberries, juneberries, mint, yarrow, herbs and various other berries! This may just be our most productive area on the farm! This shed sits at the top of a hill, directly above our terrace hugelkultur gardens. The manure run off and water runs downhill and gets trapped in the beds on the way down the hill, therefore keeping water where it needs to go! We have never had to water any of the hugelkultur beds as they retain lots of moisture from the decaying wood at their base. Lots of folks grow mushroom in hugelkultur mounds for this very reason!
When our shed arrived in 2012. Dropped in the middle of the lawn and nothing else.
Our peach tree needed a little more fencing around it since we have some bigger boys in there this year, so it struggled some this year!  Spearmint works as a wonderful ground cover underneath the tree, and the boys don't seem to both it too much - I think they had their fill early on! lol.
Boy, how the currents love living near the stinky boys!!
Lesson learned on where to plant elderberries! They get HUGE, especially where there is lots of manure around!
The boys, doing their part to grow food!
Storm stealing a nibble off the peach tree (or at least trying to!)
The before and after photos of our South Orchard & Pollinator Meadows.
The South Orchard was our first larger scale project in growing food. This was back in 2012 and we didn't know anything about permaculture, how to choose the right location for planting fruit trees, and just relied on the nursery to plant them in the best possible place in our yard. We had about 10 fruit trees and various other fruit bushes planted in the middle of lawn, in a very high wind area. Some were planted where water drained and sat. It took many years for the trees to fruit, and some still haven't despite our efforts to reengineer the surroundings, plant companion plants, etc. Ideally, fruit trees are planted in a sunny spot where they aren't getting blown nonstop by wind, storms, snow, etc. The most ideal location would be a "sun trap" where they can get plenty of sun, but are protected on three sides (almost like a curved protective overstory of taller trees around them). Plantings should be done so that you are mimicking the forest with different layers: the overstory tree layer (tall trees such as pines, oaks, maples or standard fruit trees), understory trees (such as dwarf/semi-dwarf apples, pears), shrub/bush layer (blueberry, raspberry), herbaceous layer (such as comfrey), the root layer (such as carrots), ground cover layer, and then climbing vines like grapes. Fruit trees should be planted with companion plants that help keep water in, that provide them with the right nutrients, and fix the soil in other ways (such as nitrogen fixing plants like comfrey). 
Image from "Permaculture a Beginner’s Guide by Graham Burnett"
Before (2010): Nothing but honeysuckle and wetland pasture.
After:  South Orchard & Pollinator Meadows